A versatile and prolific production designer, George Jenkins learned his craft as assistant to famed stage designer Jo Mielziner. After a brief period as an art director in Hollywood (on such films as "The Best Years of Our Lives" 1946 and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" 1947), he spent much of the 1950s dividing his time between the Broadway stage and television. During that decade, Jenkins worked as a color specialist at both NBC and CBS as well as designed such plays and musicals as "The Desk Set" (1954), "The Happiest Millionaire" (1957) and a revival of "Annie Get Your Gun" (1958).Jenkins twice worked onstage with director Arthur Penn and writer William Gibson on "Two for the Seesaw" (1958) and "The Miracle Worker" (1959). Penn hired the designer to recreate his work on the 1962 film version of "The Miracle Worker". At that point, Jenkins' feature work accelerated and he contributed meticulous and original settings for a number of fine films. For "Wait Until Dark" (1967), he assisted in creating the contemporary Greenwich Village apartment of Audrey Hepburn's character. In contrast, "1776" (1972) required designs that implied Colonial America while "Funny Lady" (1975) featured extravagant...

A versatile and prolific production designer, George Jenkins learned his craft as assistant to famed stage designer Jo Mielziner. After a brief period as an art director in Hollywood (on such films as "The Best Years of Our Lives" 1946 and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" 1947), he spent much of the 1950s dividing his time between the Broadway stage and television. During that decade, Jenkins worked as a color specialist at both NBC and CBS as well as designed such plays and musicals as "The Desk Set" (1954), "The Happiest Millionaire" (1957) and a revival of "Annie Get Your Gun" (1958).

Jenkins twice worked onstage with director Arthur Penn and writer William Gibson on "Two for the Seesaw" (1958) and "The Miracle Worker" (1959). Penn hired the designer to recreate his work on the 1962 film version of "The Miracle Worker". At that point, Jenkins' feature work accelerated and he contributed meticulous and original settings for a number of fine films. For "Wait Until Dark" (1967), he assisted in creating the contemporary Greenwich Village apartment of Audrey Hepburn's character. In contrast, "1776" (1972) required designs that implied Colonial America while "Funny Lady" (1975) featured extravagant Broadway-style musical numbers. Jenkins enjoyed a long and successful screen collaboration with director Alan J Pakula dating from "Klute" (1971). He shared an Oscar for his recreation of the newsrooms of THE WASHINGTON POST and other capitol settings in "All the President's Men" (1976). Perhaps his most challenging work for Pakula came with "Sophie's Choice" (1982) which required a recreation of 1950s Brooklyn as well as Nazi concentration camps. Jenkins final screen work included the courtroom settings for Pakula's "Presumed Innocent" (1990).